Beef Cuts

sewsilly · #21 10/09/12, 04:23 PM

That is a great chart! What the guy at the processor explained to me and the son who shot the deer was that by ordering a lot of everything, we'd be using some cuts that would make better roasts (which we like to feed the whole family with) to make cubed steak. He said some folks just wanted most of the deer in cubed steak. By not getting cubed steak that time, we got much nicer, larger bone in roasts.

I've contemplated getting a half beef, but about 2 years ago my husband became really, really allergic (as in a medical emergency, two years of shots and meds now) to beef. It's harder now to cook around not having beef on the menu when he is home. As I now use much less beef in general, I buy exactly what I want on the rare occasions that I make it. I love a new york strip steak, and every so often I want a real hamburger.

dawn

Barleychown · #22 10/09/12, 06:02 PM

Instead of having the beef cut as short ribs, have them cut as Korean style ribs, then marinate in a good terriyaki sauce and grill them.

DebM · #23 10/09/12, 07:11 PM

I so miss having beef by the half or whole. After a few years of running out of hamburger early, we had steaks made mostly and a few roasts and *everything* else into hamburger. Our processor had a checklist which made it easy, because some cuts take the same part of the steer, so his list eliminated the confusion. Not a fan of round, threw that in the burger.

Jerngen · #24 10/09/12, 07:16 PM

I was just coming back to post a chart but see one has already been found

http://www.beefboard.org/uDocs/beefcutschart775.pdf

Alice In TX/MO · #25 10/09/12, 07:17 PM

These are all WONDERFUL recommendations.

I will tell you that the year we processed our own calf, my friend who helped me said, "It's all meat. You eat it." That helped when we got funny looking cuts or a part of the calf we didn't know what to do with.

CherieOH · #26 10/09/12, 08:18 PM

Round steak can't be beat for flavor and cooks up very tender in the crock pot. I love the tomato based Swiss Steak recipe best but hubby prefers the gravy and mushrooms best. I cut partially frozen round steaks in very thin strips for use in stir fries and fajitas too.
For roasts, we love the English/Arm cut roast best. Cover with a can of cream of mushroom soup with or without slivered onions and cook slow in a 300F oven for 2-3 hours and it just falls apart. Use chunks with the gravy over noodles. Or pull apart the leftovers and mix with gravy for sandwiches. This same cut makes great beef bbq too when cooked with tomato paste instead of the soup and then add some of your favorite bbq sauce (mine is Jack Daniels Honey Smokehouse).
Of course, ground beef is most convenient for a ton of recipes.
I love a good beef brisket but am still looking for that perfect home recipe.
I've not tried the beef short ribs but have a crock pot recipe for them I want to try.

Awnry Abe · #27 10/09/12, 08:47 PM

Pikes Peak roast is our favorite roast. I didn't see it on the chart, and I have no idea where it comes from. I like the roasts that have long stretches of tissue. I also like chuck roast. I am blessed to be married to a great wife that can cook a roast. I am an above average cook, but I murder roasts.

Speaking on round steak, here is the general method for how we prepare it:

1) Salt & pepper it.
2) In a frying or roasting pan that will accept a good tight lid, sear the spooky daylights out of it. Use olive oil or bacon grease. Put the steak in just when you think your fat is going to burn.
3) When it has a good crispy crust, totally immerse it in a liquid of your choosing and cut the heat to a wee simmer. We usually use either chicken broth or the rot-gut Marsala wine from the grocery store. Both make a nice sauce, but we prefer the marsala.
4) Toss some sliced shallots or onions on top.
5) Make a bundle of herbs of our choice and tie the bundle with a string like the Frenchies do. I like parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme. Place the bundle on top of the whole mess.
6) Cover and simmer for several hours. We usually start poking at it with a fork at around 3 hours. Check it occasionally to make sure all the liquid hasn't evaporated. Add more if needed.
7) About 15-30 minutes before you get tired of smelling it and feel like eating, pour in a cup or so of cream.
8) Remove the lid and let the sauce reduce a bit.
9) Serve over mashed potatoes with green beans on the side.
10) Happiness. Round steak is odd. The different lobes will all have a different texture. Fight for the one that has the long tissue strands. The sauce, with its deep brown texture mixed with cream, turns out a beautiful bronze color.

Goatsandsheep · #28 10/09/12, 09:00 PM

Quote:

This year we asked for the tongue. I had heard that it was tasty so I tried making Lingua (Tongue Tacos) this weekend. The butcher actually gave us two so my husband asked if because there were 2 tongues in the crockpot if that made it 'bi-Lingua' The dog loved it! Tongue is not for us.

You need to pickle it. First boil the tongue with onion, garlic, celery, salt and pepper. Then you skin it and slice thin. Marinate in 1 zesty italian and 2 regular italian salad dressing with cloves of garlic.

Melissa · #29 10/09/12, 09:04 PM

Personally I want as little ground beef as possible. We usually have several deer that we will grind a lot of, and most everything that takes ground meat we are used to having with deer meat. I would rather have the steaks and the roasts. They did do a good job last year of limiting the amount of ground beef, however I still have more of that left than anything else.

Awnry Abe · #30 10/09/12, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melissa

Personally I want as little ground beef as possible. We usually have several deer that we will grind a lot of, and most everything that takes ground meat we are used to having with deer meat. I would rather have the steaks and the roasts. They did do a good job last year of limiting the amount of ground beef, however I still have more of that left than anything else.

Our last steer was Mr. Gargantuan. We ended up with 170 individual 1 lb packages of ground beef. It overwhelmed us. We gave it away in 5 and 10 packs to friends, family, and etc. I am sad to report that we are down to our last 3 packages. That fact alone is speeding our next steer to the butcher.

Allen W · #31 10/10/12, 07:58 AM

What does a 1lb package of ground beef look like? Three teenage boys around here 2lb package get cooked two at a time.

beaglady · #32 10/10/12, 11:57 AM

We're big fans of chuck roast here. Perfect crock pot dinner... Even the meat from the shanks makes nice stew meat, rather than the usual result of grinding it. Unless it's a steak, we prefer meat from the front half because it has more collagen that adds succulence.

unregistered5595 · #33 10/10/12, 12:32 PM

Half a beef. We believe we were shorted some of the loin and tenderloin, possibly. Otherwise, awesome quality, taste, leanness.
Okay here's the approximate inventory: almost 268 lbs, from 405 lbs hanging weight.
The first number is the number of packages, then a description, then lbs/package on average, then total weight for that item (s).
1 suet 12 12
6 stew meat 1 6
48 hamburger 2 96
5 short ribs 3 15
2 rump roast 3.25 6.5
8 chuck blade roast 3.5 28
3 chuck blade arm roast 3 9
8 round steak 2.75 22
7 sirloin steak 2 14
2 sirloin steak 1 2
3 rib steak 2.5 7.5
3 rib eye steak 1.5 4.5
3 t-bone steak 2.5 7.5
2 porter house steak 3 6
5 soup bones 2 10
3 tip roast 3.5 10.5
2 liver 1 2
1 tongue 2.75 2.75
1 heart 4.5 4.5
1 oxtail 2 2

And this is what it looks like:

no1butcherman · #34 11/03/12, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrownRanch

Pikes Peak roast is our favorite roast. I didn't see it on the chart, and I have no idea where it comes from. I like the roasts that have long stretches of tissue. I also like chuck roast. I am blessed to be married to a great wife that can cook a roast. I am an above average cook, but I murder roasts.

Speaking on round steak, here is the general method for how we prepare it:

1) Salt & pepper it.
2) In a frying or roasting pan that will accept a good tight lid, sear the spooky daylights out of it. Use olive oil or bacon grease. Put the steak in just when you think your fat is going to burn.
3) When it has a good crispy crust, totally immerse it in a liquid of your choosing and cut the heat to a wee simmer. We usually use either chicken broth or the rot-gut Marsala wine from the grocery store. Both make a nice sauce, but we prefer the marsala.
4) Toss some sliced shallots or onions on top.
5) Make a bundle of herbs of our choice and tie the bundle with a string like the Frenchies do. I like parsely, sage, rosemary & thyme. Place the bundle on top of the whole mess.
6) Cover and simmer for several hours. We usually start poking at it with a fork at around 3 hours. Check it occasionally to make sure all the liquid hasn't evaporated. Add more if needed.
7) About 15-30 minutes before you get tired of smelling it and feel like eating, pour in a cup or so of cream.
8) Remove the lid and let the sauce reduce a bit.
9) Serve over mashed potatoes with green beans on the side.
10) Happiness. Round steak is odd. The different lobes will all have a different texture. Fight for the one that has the long tissue strands. The sauce, with its deep brown texture mixed with cream, turns out a beautiful bronze color.

Pikes Peak is a full heal of round. I like mine with the rat still in it.

HOTW · #35 11/03/12, 12:57 PM

I would love to order a half beef but th ewhole idea od trying to figure out what to order is overwhelming! Wish there was an interactive cuts of beef for a half/quarter/whole beef so you can learn what you can get, how uch you can change it up by doing roasts/steaks that sort of thing! I just get shaking looking at the chart because I have no idea what you can get and not get in one butchering!

oregon woodsmok · #36 11/03/12, 02:09 PM

The best thing about ordering a side is that you get the short ribs. None of the markets around here sell short ribs so the only way to get them is to buy a side of beef. I've got lots of good short rib recipes and am reduced to using a chuck roast to cook those recipes.

My very favorite cut is the porterhouse steak and, again, I never see those in the super market. They must all be sold to restaurants.

The little round shank bones go to the dogs, but they can be used to make excellent soup.

oregon woodsmok · #37 11/03/12, 02:15 PM

Melissa, maybe you could get a copy of the list of possible cuts from your butcher and then ask here what we cook with each of those cuts. Each different cut has something delicious that can be made out of it.

soulsurvivor · #38 11/04/12, 04:37 AM

It hasn't yet been mentioned, but the flat iron is a very good tasting steak. DH eats beef almost daily so steaks cut for grilling are usually the priority for him when buying bulk beef. Next is roast cuts and last is ground beef.

Roasts are cooked with a reduced sodium beef broth. Ground beef is usually made into meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, chili, meatballs, stuffed peppers, hot dog sauce, sloppy joe sauce, and homemade hamburger helper. Some of the ground beef is packaged as hamburger patties which are handy to have for quick skillet/grill meals to feed only one or two people.